Multivitamin Use and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Men.

BACKGROUND

Although multivitamins are widely used by US adults, few prospective studies have investigated their association with the long- and short-term risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate how multivitamin use is associated with the risk of CVD in initially healthy men at baseline.

METHODS

We studied 18,530 male physicians aged ≥40 y from the Physicians' Health Study I cohort who were free of CVD and cancer at baseline (1982). All men provided a wide range of self-reported lifestyle and clinical factors plus intake of selected foods and dietary supplements. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CIs).

RESULTS

During a mean follow-up of 12.2 y (total of 225,287 person-years), there were 1697 incident cases of major CVD (defined as nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, and CVD death). In multivariable-adjusted analyses, no significant associations were observed among baseline multivitamin users compared with nonusers for the risk of major CVD events (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.05), whereas a self-reported duration of ≥20 y at baseline was associated with lower risk (HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.90; P-trend = 0.05). Baseline multivitamin use was also significantly inversely associated with the risk of cardiac revascularization (HR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.98). Baseline use of multivitamins was not significantly associated with other CVD endpoints.

CONCLUSION

In this long-term prospective study in initially healthy men, multivitamin use for ≥20 y was associated with a lower risk of major CVD events.